“THE WOMAN DISPUTED”

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 605, 6 March 1929, Page 15

“THE WOMAN DISPUTED”

PRIVATE SCREENING YESTERDAY There have been many great themes provided for directors of screen stories but perhaps none greater than that provided for Henry King, who made "The Woman .Disputed, which was shown privately yesterday. Few pictures indeed can cause the magic world of make-believe to become a reality—but that is the quality of "The Woman Disputed,” a dynamic drama in which Norma Talmadge exalts a Magdalen to the level of a patriotic saint. The story is based on the sensational stage play of the same name, which in turn has been taken from one of Guj de Maugrassant’s brilliant stories. The film has a gripping plot and the added “rr/not sacdfice'sincerit y^t o the spectacular. And e\eiy scene is a tribute to the directors. Only a great artist could exact successfully the role of Mary Ann neV the Viennese light of love. Miss Talmadge has done mor * a " thls lias made Mary Ann with her cheap kfss curls, her impudence, and her thoroughly unmoral conception of life, Something real and vital, so that at fa”t in one of the most appealing st'enes of the film. t llf lt PfL l f ,oker Can believe as well as sympathise. , . , It is without doubt Miss Talmadge s greatest contribution to the screen. She Plavs with a delicacy and a restraint that could easily be morbid Dirticularlv at the climax of the story which is one of the most P°if" ant .scenes ever enacted in * staieIt is easy to understand the state ment that the film has become one of